Syringes, including those that are used to administer liquid radiopharmaceuticals pose a risk of needle stick. Various safety syringes have been developed to reduce the risk of needle stick, including the Monoject® sold by The Kendall Company, a business of Tyco International Ltd., having a place of business at 15 Hampshire St., Mansfield, Mass. and the SafetyLok® sold by Becton-Dickson and Company (B-D) having a place of business at 1 Becton Drive, Franklin Lakes, N.J. An illustrative example of the Monoject(E) type of technology includes that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,156,599 issued on Oct. 20, 1992, which is incorporated herein by reference. Illustrative examples of the Safety-Lok® technology include that disclosed in: U.S. Pat. No. 6,221,052, issued on Apr. 24, 2001, which is incorporated herein by reference; U.S. Pat. No. 6,432,087, issued on Aug. 13, 2002, which is incorporated herein by reference; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,368,303, issued on Apr. 9, 2002, which is incorporated herein by reference.
Both the Monoject® and the Safety-Lok® safety syringe have a cylindrical needle sheath that can be repositioned and locked after administration of a radiopharmaceutical to surround the needle to reduce the risk of needle stick.
Safety syringes with an extendable sheath design are also disclosed in: U.S. Pat. No. 4,994,045, issued to Ranford on Feb. 19, 1991, which is incorporated herein by reference; U.S. Pat. No. 4,998,924, issued to Ranford on Mar. 12, 1991, which is incorporated herein by reference; U.S. Pat. No. 4,743,233, issued to Schneider on May 10, 1988, which is incorporated herein by reference; U.S. Pat. No. 5,403,287, issued to Talonn et al. on Apr. 4, 1995, which is incorporated herein by reference; U.S. Pat. No. 5,163,916, issued to Sunderland on Nov. 17, 1992, which is incorporated herein by reference; U.S. Design Patent No. 313,470, issued to Talonn et al. on Jan. 1, 1991, which is incorporated herein by reference; and U.S. Design Patent No. 344,355, issued to Talonn et al. on Feb. 15, 1994, which is incorporated herein by reference.
The administration of radiopharmaceuticals can also pose a radiation exposure risk to medical personnel. The use of syringe injection shields reduces this risk. Biodex Medical Systems, Inc. of 20 Ramsay Rd., Shirley, N.Y. sells the Pro-Tec® II syringe injection shield. The Pro-Tec® II syringe injection shield uses tungsten shielding, a lead glass window and fits various disposable syringes. A thumbscrew holds the syringe in place.
Biodex also sells the Pro-Tec® III syringe injection shield. The Pro-Tec® III syringe injection shield is produced in two different models. One model is for regular syringes. The other model is designed to function with one or more safety syringes such as the Safety-Lok® sold by B-D or the Monoject® sold by The Kendall Company. There are two ways to remove a used safety syringe from the Pro-Tec® III syringe injection shield.
One approach is to invert the combination of syringe injection shield and used safety syringe so that the needle is pointing up relative to the floor. The release button is then pressed, allowing the used syringe to fall by gravity from the shield. Thereafter, the syringe is typically placed in a pharmaceutical pig (needle down) for transport to a nuclear pharmacy for disposal of the used safety syringe. Unfortunately, the needle remains exposed during the aforementioned disposal procedure. Approximately 50% of all needlesticks occur after injection and before disposal.
Another approach is to position the combination of syringe injection shield and used safety syringe so that the needle is pointing towards the floor. The release button is pressed, allowing the used syringe to be manually removed from the syringe injection shield. Thereafter, the syringe is typically placed in a pharmaceutical pig (needle down) for transport to a nuclear pharmacy for disposal of the used safety syringe. Unfortunately, the needle also remains exposed during the aforementioned disposal procedure. There is a need for a syringe injection shield that will allow a safety syringe to be placed in the “safe” position before the syringe is removed from the syringe injection shield. A safety syringe is in the safe position when the needle is covered by a sheath or other protective element and the sheath is locked in position relative to the needle.
There are various ways to place a safety syringe in the safe position, which is well known to those skilled in the art. For example, the Monoject® safety syringe is rotated to a locked position after the needle has been retracted into the needle sheath. The Safety-Lok® safety syringe uses a different locking procedure. First, the needle is retracted into the needle sheath, then the barrel is pulled longitudinally into a locked position. Other safety syringes that use different locking systems may be suitable for use with this invention.
The Pro-Tee® III syringe injection shield has a toggle element that can assume three positions, which are as follows: neutral; ready; and release. This prior art toggle element is in the neutral position when there is no syringe in the injection shield. The ready position for this prior art toggle element is when a syringe is in the injection shield. Finally, this prior art toggle element is in the release position when the syringe is being removed from the shield.
The prior art toggle element associated Pro-Tec® III syringe injection shield will not allow the syringe to be made safe prior to removal of the syringe from the shield due to the fact that this prior art toggle element cannot hold a syringe sheath in place so the sheath can be locked in position relative to the barrel and needle.
Many radiopharmaceuticals are injected into a patient's blood vessel. To confirm that the needle is properly positioned in the patient's blood vessel, medical personnel typically pull back on the syringe plunger to draw blood through the needle into the barrel of the syringe. If blood cannot be seen in the barrel of the syringe, the needle is repositioned and the process is repeated. The radiopharmaceutical is administered after the correct position of the needle has been confirmed by the presence of blood in the syringe barrel. For this reason, prior art syringe shields typically include a lead glass insert so medical personnel could attempt to see inside the barrel of the syringe while it was positioned in the syringe shield. Unfortunately, it is hard to see through the lead glass into the syringe barrel to confirm the presence of blood. There is a need for a syringe injection shield that allows easy visual confirmation of needle placement in a blood vessel. The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.